Siskel and Ebert's first review of Star Wars

Thats the one DamonD, and it was Gabriel Byrne who was in it, as well as Scott Glenn and Ian McKellen.

A totally under-rated film. Its only more recently that Mann's earlier films are getting the recognition they deserve.

 

I'll keep the argument between the two of us to PM's, but "Darth_Slanderous" is wrong. As J. Jonah Jameson once said:

"Slander is spoken. In print, it's 'libel'."

 

Picky, picky.

(Is that slander? )

 

Both Siskel and Ebert put the first Star Wars on their top ten lists of 1977. Siskel put at it number 7 and Ebert put it at number 10. Siskel's number one movie that year was Annie Hall and Ebert's was 3 Women. Check out all of their top ten lists from 1969 to 1998 at: http://refstar.com/s&e/.

 

Ebert also has some directing experience. He is a film historian. Why else would he bit one of the world's most respected critics? I'd like to see you "wipe the floor with him."

 

I believe that Ebert gave ANH four out of four stars when he first saw it. (He gave ROTJ four, too.)

 

I suppose I have to make a bit of a confession. I didn't especially like Star Wars when it first came out. I was 14 years old at the time and maybe I was just at an in-between age. My brother was 11 and he saw it 9 times, plastered his walls with posters, bought the soundtrack album and "The Story of Star Wars" album, the novelization (and "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" or whatever that book was called) a half-dozen t-shirts and the bubble gum cards.

It wasn't until the arrival of cable TV and repeated viewings of "Empire" followed by ROTJ and Luke's shockingly pacifist victory that I realized, as a 20-year-old, Star Wars was a lot of fun on an intellectual level. Not to mention the space battle in "Jedi" pretty much blew my mind. But the bottom line is, the original "Star Wars" didn't do much for me until the sequels put it into context.

My point (and I do have one) is that it's OK if people didn't love "Star Wars" right away. The original movie didn't give us the whole picture. That it was as popular as it was is actually pretty amazing. I, for one, certainly like it more now than I did 26 years ago.

 

The point is moot because Siskel and Ebert DID like the first Star Wars when it came out.

 

bumping up as a test